LANSING, Mich. — After serving in Vietnam, Doug Lovejoy was a volunteer firefighter and delivered mail in his hometown of Dimondale for over 10 years.
After a lifetime of serving others, his community is coming together to give back to him.
"He's just a helper in a lot of ways for a lot of people," said his wife Sally. "If they needed something they'd go and help."
Doug now suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and is unable to get in and out of his house without assistance.
"Can’t drive, can't do what I want in the barn," he said. "It changes things, because I don't know what to do."
"Having to see Doug go through this is just awful," said Sally.
But thanks to their neighbor, they'll have a new ramp to help the both of them with their day-to-day lives.
"My wife and I noticed that Doug had started to deteriorate a little bit, and sally mentioned that they wanted to get a ramp, and then she fell not shortly after that," said Matt Bowen, who lives across the street.
Their own porch was making their lives difficult with bad boards and decaying screws.
"I took a heading about three steps up and landed on my arm and broke it," said Sally.
Doug and Sally decided it was time to fix their porch and add a ramp.
"We sold the motor home so that we could have the money to do this, and he said we shouldn't have to do that," said Sally.
Matt and his wife reached out to people for donations, and this weekend, the Lovejoys' lives are about to change for the better.
"It speaks volumes as to how a small community can come together and make a difference for somebody," he said. "it's just a really good feeling to have a community come together like that for one of their own."
And the Lovejoys are just excited to get a fresh start.
"It’s real special," said Doug. "I'm not ready to move into those other places yet."
"It’s going to get kind of noisy around here for a couple of days, but I think we can live with the noise for a little bit," said Sally.
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